The Golden Hairpin

Zhou Ziqin looked at her in surprise, and asked her with his mouth wide open. But Huang Zixia couldn't hear anything. A large swath of blood-red color surged in front of her eyes. This was the color of the sunset when she first met Yu Xuan. Like the sunset at this time, the whole world was stained with blood. The whole world seemed to have only deep and shallow red, everything. Lost the truth, only a vague outline, twisted and waved in front of her eyes.

Grief and depression, sorrow and forbearance, these things that have been pressed in her heart for more than half a year, it seems that the embankment of the Yellow River suddenly collapsed, and the unstoppable sorrow quickly engulfed her whole person, making her hands and body uncontrollable. Tremble.

I see.

The death of her parents and family, the turning point of her life, she disregarded her fame and status, regardless of everything she gave, it turned out to be so easily obliterated.

She grabbed Zhou Ziqin's hand and gasped, but she couldn't say a word.

Zhou Ziqin looked at her purple face and trembling body, and couldn't help but ask: "Chonggu, you... are you okay?"

Before she finished her words, Li Shubai, who had been standing behind her, opened her arms and shielded Huang Zixia, who was shaking and almost collapsed. He let her lean safely in his arms so that she won't fall to the ground.

She waved her hands blankly in the air, as if Higurashi couldn't return home, she seemed to want to catch something. Li Shubai held the hand on her shoulder, followed her arm down, and held her hand tightly, clasping her fingers.

The heat from him passed through her thin coat and coat at this time, and imprinted on her skin, making her chaotic and noisy mind finally appear something clear.

It was he who hugged her and whispered to her in her ear: "Don't be afraid... you have already experienced the most terrible things in the world, what else is worth your fear?"

His voice is so thick and gentle, although her ears are roaring, and she can only hear the sound of blood boiling, but his voice lingers in her ears, making her grasp the rope thrown from the shore like a drowning person, and hold tightly. Live, even if the brain is emptied and turned into a blank, you still know that you are saved and will not let go.

Knowing that he was behind her and knowing that he would protect herself, she let all her strength be lost. At this moment, she didn't think about anything anymore, just leaning on him silently. Because she knew that the person behind her could give her all the strength and help to support her collapsed sky.

She leaned on Li Shubai and asked him to help her walk to the waterside and sit down.

Zhou Ziqin was at a loss. He didn't understand why she was like this all of a sudden. Seeing her inhumane appearance, he couldn't help but stammered and asked, "Is that...that bracelet important?"

Huang Zixia nodded, held his head, and said nothing.

Li Shubai said to him: "I think Chonggu probably suspected that someone had poisoned the bracelet."

Zhou Ziqin remembered what Huang Zixia had mentioned to himself, so he hurriedly said: "Oh, this matter, Chonggu mentioned to me. But we have tried it on Fugui before, and it seems that it is not poisonous. Moreover, this bracelet is in Fu Xin. Ruan should have been around for a long time. If it is poisonous, why did she die of poisoning a few days ago?"

Huang Zixia raised his hand, grabbed his sleeves, and squeezed a dry and hoarse voice from her throat: "You give it...give it to me."

Zhou Ziqin hurriedly nodded, handed her the bracelet in his hand, looked at Huang Zixia in surprise, at a loss.

Huang Zixian took the jade bracelet with a trembling hand, stroking the two small fishes that hugged each other's tails and swam closely together, and his hands trembled slightly.

For a long time, she silently picked up the jade bracelet, picked it up with her nails, and put it on her left wrist. The bright and transparent jade bracelet, the sunlight circulates on it. The two lively little fish seemed to come alive, shaking slightly on her wrist.

Zhou Ziqin looked at her like Shuangxue's bright wrist, surrounded by that brilliant brilliance, especially bright and clean. He was a little nervous for some reason, and said, "Chonggu, didn't you mean that this bracelet might be poisonous?"

Huang Zixian lowered his head and turned the bracelet with his right hand. Her chest was slightly up and down, but she didn't say anything.

And Li Shubai stood up and whispered: "Don't worry, no matter what poison, it is impossible to seep in from her unbroken skin, right?"

Zhou Ziqin nodded, but always felt that something was wrong.

Huang Zixian and Li Shubai didn't say anything, they walked outside one after another. Zhou Ziqin was stunned, and hurried to catch up. Where are you going?

Li Shubai turned his head and motioned to him: "You go to the flower hall first and wait for us."

Zhou Ziqin responded, and asked cautiously: "Should I go find a doctor and show him to Chonggu?"

Li Shubai shook his head and said, "You go check this bracelet first. I will deal with Chonggu's side."

The prefecture’s kitchen was located on the southwest side of the mansion, near the Yamen, and it was not too far away from the dining hall of the prefecture at that time.

Li Shubai and Huang Zixia arrived in the kitchen. The lunch was over, and the dinner was still early. Several helpers were peeling the water chestnut lotus one after another while talking and chatting.

Seeing them at the door, Mrs. Lu, who was in charge, quickly stood up and asked, "Do you two want a snack?"

Li Shubai saw that Huang Zixia didn't speak, so he asked, "Is there any yolk soup?"

Aunt Lu hurriedly said: "There is no yangtui soup, but there is still mutton soup today."

"Then have a bowl of mutton soup." He said, turning his head to look at Huang Zixia.

Huang Zixia walked in, picked out the same ocean bowl as before, washed it by hand, and put it on the stove.

Although she is a family member, she often wears men's clothing to investigate cases with her father since she was twelve years old. She is more likely to get mixed up with a lot of government officials. She does not behave very well, and she washes dishes and spoons in one go.

The mutton soup was ready, and when she was about to stretch out her hands to serve it, she thought about it again, and rolled up her narrow sleeves as she did the day before serving it.

The sea bowl is a Yue kiln celadon, winning the green color of Qianfeng. Because the bowl was too big, there were two ears on both sides. She held it in both hands and walked forward slowly. Then he took the bowl out of the kitchen and headed towards the hall.

This is a very familiar way.

After exiting the kitchen door, passing the loquat tree in front of the court, passing through the small door with cracked wooden planks, there is a very smooth blue brick floor in front of you, along the long corridor.

She walked along the promenade, as it was then.

At first, because she was depressed, she stubbornly walked forward holding such a big pot of soup along the way. The maid Wu Wu followed behind, and said to her, "I'll do it, girl, you are too tired!"

But she ignored Wu Wu, and just walked forward with her head buried. When her bent arms were tired, she held her ears and dropped her hands. The Pisces bracelet slipped off slowly from the wrist, and lightly tapped on the porcelain plate with a "ding", with a crisp sound like crushed ice hitting jade.

This "ding" sound also echoed today, on her wrist and on the sea bowl, exactly the same as before.

Holding the bowl along the way, she was silent, bowed her head and walked towards the hall step by step.

Li Shubai followed behind her and walked with her to the hall-the place where her family had a happy meal.

The mutton soup just scooped up in the porcelain bowl was steaming up. The water vapor condensed on her drooping eyelashes and moistened her eyes.

She remembered the early summer when she was fourteen years old, when the dragonfly flew low, and the flower was born. The blood-colored sunset enveloped the whole world, and she saw his eyes, gentle and clean, not like looking at a little girl, but like looking at someone who will be waiting for her life.

There were tears in his eyes when he picked up the orphans whose parents had lost their lives and sent them to the nursery in person. He said, A Xian, perhaps in this world, only I know this feeling best. She saw the thin water in his eyes, the kind of sadness and sorrow that she didn't understand until the moment when her relatives passed away.

They were sitting with their backs half a foot apart under the Pulberry Corridor in early autumn. He turned the book page by page, and she peeled the lotus seeds one by one. Occasionally there was a very sweet lotus, she peeled one and gave it to him, and he ate it without making a sound. She was so angry that she took off a pumila and slammed it on the top of his head fiercely. The soft fruit flew out, and he stroked his head to look at her with a blank and innocent look.

The night he moved out, there was a blizzard in the early morning. She woke up early the next day to look for him, but when she opened the door, she found him standing by the doorstep. The eaves could not cover the flying snowflakes. His whole body was stiff and his head was covered with snow. The snow on his shoulders had melted and turned into ice again, freezing on his shoulders. And his expression was dull, he just looked at her, but he couldn't speak. He stared at her only when she hurriedly pulled him in the door and wiped him off the snow, and said in a very low, low, almost indistinct voice, "I can't help it, I don't know I left." What do you...what do you do.

How to do how to do? How to do……

Huang Zixian's body began to tremble slightly.

She finally walked the last part of the way, walked into the hall, and put the porcelain bowl in her hands on the table.

Zhou Ziqin was already there waiting for her, eager to talk to her, but seeing Li Shubai walking in behind her, and her expression was so solidified and heavy, she stood at the table for a daze, and did not step forward to interrupt. she.

Li Shubai, who helped her with the dishes behind him, put the washed bowls on the table one by one.

Huang Zi Xia took a deep breath in silence, then tightened the sleeves that had been rolled up, and began to pour the soup.

She was holding a small bowl in her left hand, hanging above the steamy ocean bowl, and using a wooden spoon in her right hand to scoop up the soup inside. Pick up another bowl of soup...

She was pale, and although she barely controlled herself, she could not contain her trembling figure. Li Shubai looked at her face, saw her look as gray as death, and his eyes were full of great sorrow. But even so, she still stubbornly walked towards the result she feared the most, step by step, extremely sad, extremely desperate, and extremely firm.

Li Shubai raised her hand and gently pressed her shoulder, her body was trembling all the time, and she felt his palm pressed against her shoulder, a kind of power faintly flowing through the joint between his palm and her shoulder, from his hand, from Her shoulders penetrated, and a huge courage suppressed her fragile and thin body.

He lowered his head and whispered in her ear: "No matter what the result is, you don't have to be afraid-I will always be on your side."

Her breathing was quickened by his words. The heavy burden that was pressing her deathly, those terrible results that she didn't dare to face, the murderer that was destined to make her heart-piercing, all became no longer important in an instant.

The important thing is to truly restore all the steps and details of the case, to remove all sins and not allow any cover up, and to present all the true extraction and refinement in front of everyone.

Regardless of the truth, she now has the strongest barrier behind her, and he will give her the greatest strength, no one can take away.

She looked up at Li Shubai, slowly nodded to him, and whispered: "It's okay, I will do it well."

Li Shubai stared at her deeply, seeing the determination in her eyes, and then relieved her shoulders.

Her heart was clear and clear, and her trembling wrist became stable. She prepared five bowls of fragrant mutton soup and placed them on the table one by one, and then placed them one by one in the position where the relatives were sitting.

Then, as if she was completely relieved, she slowly sat down at the table, staring at the five bowls of mutton soup for a long time, and said: "Zi Qin, help me test these five bowls of mutton soup."

"What to test?" Zhou Ziqin was a little confused.

"Poison... Poisonous poison." Huang Zixian slowly but clearly said.

Zhou Ziqin was shocked and yelled, "How could it be poisonous? You brought it from the kitchen, escorted by King Kui, and put it on the table yourself! Besides... where did you come from? poison?"

"Yes." Huang Zixia gritted her teeth and said nothing.